拉丁美洲：被切开的血管(Open Veins of Latin America)简介：
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx.
Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation. Thus he is concerned with gold and silver, cacao and cotton, rubber and coffee, fruit, hides and wool, petroleum, iron, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum ore, nitrates, and tin. These are the veins which he traces through the body of the entire continent, up to the Rio Grande and throughout the Caribbean, and all the way to their open ends where they empty into the coffers of wealth in the United States and Europe.
Weaving fact and imagery into a rich tapestry, Galeano fuses scientific analysis with the passions of a plundered and suffering people. An immense gathering of materials is framed with a vigorous style that never falters in its command of themes. All readers interested in great historical, economic, political, and social writing will find a singular analytical achievement, and an overwhelming narrative that makes history speak, unforgettably.
This classic is now further honored by Isabel Allende’s inspiring introduction. Universally recognized as one of the most important writers of our time, Allende once again contributes her talents to literature, to political principles, and to enlightenment.《拉丁美洲被切开的血管》是一部关于拉丁美洲的杰作，一部用爱情小说和海盗小说的方式莱谈政治经济学的书，一部提示被官方掩盖和篡改的历史、戳穿殖民者的谎言和罪恶的巨著，一部在全球 用多种语言再版四十多次、逾三十多年而经久不衰的经典。委内瑞拉总统查韦斯，在一个特殊的历史时刻，把此书赠给了美国总统奥巴马。作者加莱亚诺说：“历史对我们来说，一直是一个残酷的老师。”
富饶、丰腴的拉丁美洲，却是世界上民众最穷困的大陆之一。这是为什么呢？
秘鲁诗人塞萨尔·巴列霍在《我降生那天》一诗中写道：“我降生那天／上帝病了……”这一天是自哥伦布“发现新大陆”开始的。从此这块丰饶土地上的金银、铜锡、石油、蔗糖、橡胶、棉花、咖啡……像汩汩流淌的鲜血，被敲骨吸髓的欧美殖民者劫掠而去，拉美只剩下被压榨得瘦骨嶙峋、伤痕累累的躯体；几百年过去了，依然如此。
难道这一切，是用“文明的冲突”所能遮蔽和掩饰的吗？本书的警世价值和经典意义，即在于此。